Founded in 1964, IPRA developed from a conference organized by the "Quaker International Conferences and Seminars" in Clarens, Switzerland, 16-20 August 1963.The participants decided to hold international Conferences on Research on International Peace and Security (COROIPAS), which would be organized by a Continuing Committee similar to the Pugwash Conferences.

Under the leadership of John Burton, the Continuing Committee met in London, 1-3 December 1964. At that time, they took steps to broaden the original concept of holding research conferences. The decision was made to form a professional association with the principal aim of increasing the quantity of research focused on world peace and ensuring its scientific quality.

An Executive Committee including Bert V A. Roling, Secretary General (The Netherlands), John Burton (United Kingdom), Ljubivoje Acimovic (Yugoslavia), Jerzy Sawicki (Poland), and Johan Galtung (Norway) was appointed.This group was also designated as Nominating Committee for a 15-person Advisory Council to be elected at the first general conference of IPRA, to represent various regions, disciplines, and research interests in developing the work of the Association.

Since then, IPRA has held 25biennial general conferences, the venues of which were chosen with a view to reflecting the association's global scope. IPRA, the global network of peace researchers, has just held its 25th General Conference on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in Istanbul, Turkey in August 2014 where peace researchers from all parts of the world had the opportunity to exchange actionable knowledge on the conference broad theme of ‘Uniting for sustainable peace and universal values’ .

The 26th IPRA General Conference will take place between November 28 and 1st December in 2016 in Freetown, Sierra Leone on the theme: AGENDA FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT: Conflict prevention, post-conflict transformation, and the Conflict, Disaster and Development Debate